Risk assessment of karst ecological environments: A case study of Guizhou Province

The regional ecological risk assessment is characterized by large scale, a large number of risk sources and risk receptors, and strong spatial heterogeneity. Research on this issue is an important theoretical foundation for identifying the level of the ecological environment risk and formulating the preventive countermeasures. By referring to the relative risk model as the risk assessment principle, this article, taking Guizhou Province as an example, establishes a risk assessment framework and an index system for karst ecological environment in Guizhou Province. Based on a comprehensive consideration of regional natural and economic conditions and the causes of natural disasters, the study analyzed the risk, exposure, vulnerability, disaster prevention and mitigation capacity of each evaluation unit; it classified the regional risk levels by using analytic hierarchy process and system cluster analysis. The results show that the distribution of karst ecological environment risk in Guizhou Province is obviously related to the background of ecological environments and the level of social and economic development, in which the high risk areas mainly distribute in habitat fragile plateau mountain regions, plateau canyon areas and the center of Guiyang city which has a high comprehensive development, while the low risk areas are distribute in the southeast and northwest of Guizhou with less karst areas, better ecological environment and less natural disasters.